Coming into the third stage of civilization.

Our time is short. The wave is coming. In fact, as most of us can see, it has already begun to arrive.

Emotion builds images in the mind. Those images are pulled from past experience. The images these emotions evoke are what guide our choices and behaviors.

Before written word, before we told stories, it did not take much emotion to make people lose control of themselves. This limited the size of the community that could be sustained.

Our stories and myths give context to what we are feeling and allow us to maintain control of ourselves through the ebb and flow of emotional energy.

Over time our myths have grown complex and rich with past experiences, greatly increasing our ability to control ourselves and build more complex communities. But, no protection is complete. Evolution guarantees there will always be another, bigger wave. A wave that will clear all established emotional structures from our society, breaking our communities apart.

The same way a tidal wave clears the land, an emotional wave clears established social, cultural, and religious structures. Leaving all people disconnected from one another, feeling alone and needing to reconnect and rebuild.

We have engineered many great and clever things to reduce the damage of flood waters. Dams, levees, aqueducts, and sewers. The same is true with emotional waters.

There are no greater tools to survive an emotional wave than reading and writing. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and prose.

Reading gives us perspective that our brain can use to interpret new feelings. Writing helps us to bring structure to our flooded mind. Writing every day brings order to chaos.

And, when that time does come for our world to be wiped clean again, reading and writing can help build back; better and stronger.

In the first stage of civilization, religions were built from stories shared by word of mouth. In the second stage, religions were built from stories that were read in books. In the next, third stage, religions will be built from the act of writing.